Chapter 31
Lainie dropped Ben off after midnight.
“Be careful when you go home. There’s a gunman out there hunting for you,” he said as he opened his car door. “Stay on your toes.”
“He might have been shooting at you. You be careful as well.”
Their eyes met, and it was hard for Lainie to deny the connection she felt with Ben. They’d only known each other for a week—the worst week of her life—yet she felt as if she’d known him and depended on him a lot longer. Then, with a smile and a nod, he was gone.
As light as she tried to keep her thoughts, Lainie was on edge as she drove home. She thought about Crystal Benton in the hospital bed.
She’d been bound.
There were guns, duct tape, and handcuffs in the car.
The car’s driver was a hardcore gang member.
It was obvious that something nefarious had been planned for the woman.
How long had she been held captive? Where had she been, and where was she going?
If it was Vine reacting because Benton was stealing from him, it surprised Lainie that he would do that to someone he knew—but then again, Benton did betray him.
As tired as Lainie was, she couldn’t deny that being shot at had amped her up a bit. She double-checked all the locks, windows, and doors, then placed her loaded gun on the nightstand before she lay down to sleep.
Ben was stiff and sore when he woke up. He took a shower though the doctor had advised him not to get his stitches wet.
It was a guilty pleasure to stand under the hot water, get rid of the grime, and the smell.
He was certain he smelled like a dirty gym bag.
At some point he needed to Uber over to the lot and pick up his vehicle.
Carefully, he tilted his head to wash his hair. He enjoyed the hot water for as long as he could.
When he moved the wrong way and tweaked his injury, he thought about Efren. Efren would have been first in line to give him grief about getting shot.
“Don’t you know how to duck, Isaacs? I thought I trained you better than that.”
The memory of his buddy made his heart hurt. Worse than the pain of the stitches in his head. For a few minutes Ben let the water run down his face to soothe his psyche and wash away the tears.
When he finished showering, he knew he had to call Efren’s wife and tell her about the car.
She answered on the first ring. “Ben.”
“Candy, I wish I had good news, but I don’t.”
“Just tell me, Ben. Don’t beat around the bush.”
He broke the news as gently as he could. “There is no evidence on the car to tell us anything about Efren.” He could hear her breathing, but she didn’t say anything for about a minute.
“Thanks for staying on this.”
“I would never let it go. I will find him, Candy. He’s my partner—I will never turn my back on him.”
Grief or no grief, there would be no lazing around today.
He dressed to head to the office and ordered an Uber.
Today was the meeting with the assistant special agent in charge, and Ben wasn’t certain what was to become of the investigation.
All he was certain about was that chances were slimmer and slimmer that Efren would come home safe.
Ben dreaded the meeting with the ASAC. Gunther Packard was known by the rank and file to be by the book.
Ben had violated policy when he went to talk to Evangeline Moffit, and he was ready to accept the consequences.
It was possible he’d be pulled from the case.
He got to the office about 9:00, and he and Mark stepped into the conference room to wait for Packard.
They completely reviewed all the information their six-month-long investigation had amassed.
The boss was due at ten, but at five minutes till, they were told that he would be delayed.
Packard did not arrive until noon. When he did, he was surprisingly upbeat.
“Gentlemen, I recognize this meeting is difficult for you both.” He looked at Ben. “You can take time off if you need it, Agent Isaacs.”
“It’s really just a scratch, sir.”
Packard nodded. “I’m glad you’re okay. I’ve authorized two agents to assist LBPD in the investigation. On the other front, I’m very concerned about Agent Gomez.”
“As are we,” Mark said. “He is now more than a week overdue. One reason why we’d like to find Stan Moffit is the hope that he may know what happened to Efren.”
“I’m glad you brought that up. I do have some good news.”
Ben and Mark exchanged glances.
What good news? Ben wondered.
“I was on a conference call with Chief Mackall at Long Beach PD before I arrived here. They have apprehended Stan Moffit.”
“What?” Ben sat up in his chair.
“He was notified of the apprehension while I was speaking to him. I asked if I could relay the news to you. I was prepared to chastise you today, explain that I always thought concentrating on the car wash was the wrong play. However, evidence recovered in Moffit’s vehicle appears to indicate that he was the right person to focus on after all. ”
“Sir?” Mark asked, looking as perplexed as Ben felt.
“Moffit was the SoCal guy helping in the human-smuggling operation with multistate contacts. Vine was a smoke screen. Your instincts were correct in wanting to speak to Moffit. He might be the one responsible for Agent Gomez’s disappearance.”
Lainie woke up to the sound of her phone vibrating on the nightstand next to her bed. She picked it up as it stopped. Squinting at the screen, she saw that she’d missed a call from her father.
She sat up and stretched. It was 9:00 a.m., and after all the tension of the day before, she was surprised that she had slept so long. Lainie stood, dragging her hands through her hair, trying to clear her head and wake up enough to call her father back.
After a few minutes, she redialed. “Dad, what’s up?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing. You’ve been a stranger. Do you have any news?”
Her family should know about Evie’s jewelry and Benton being in the hospital, though it didn’t answer any old questions. It just raised new ones.
“I do have some news. I’ll take a shower and come over. How are the boys?”
“They’re still asking about their father and mother. It’s getting a little harder to distract them. Archie has been a big help. How are you holding up?”
It took a second for Lainie to respond. How was she holding up?
She felt as if she’d been running a marathon at a sprint.
“I’m not sure. I haven’t had much time to think.
” Ben’s comment that she hadn’t even had time to bury Evie replayed in her mind.
Lainie wasn’t ready to say that Evie needed to be buried.
Where were her parents on that score? She hated to think about the conversation they would have to have.
“I understand that. Come on over and take a break for a bit.”
“I’ll be over in about half an hour.”
She set about making coffee and then hopped into the shower, trying to think only about the next thing and not about the difficult decisions that would need to be made in the future.
When Lainie arrived at her folks’ house, Owen and Evan bounded out the front door to greet her.
“Aunt Lainie! We’re going to the movies. Do you want to come?” Owen said. He reached her first, and she grabbed him in a tight hug. She didn’t know exactly what the boys had been told, but she was glad they were amenable to distraction.
Archie followed them out of the house. “We’re going to see a Marvel movie. You want to join us?”
Lainie released Owen and hugged Evan. “I’d love to, but I have a lot of things to do. You guys have a good time.”
“Missing out on good popcorn.” The expression on Archie’s face told her he was doing his best to keep the boys’ spirits up.
“Tempting.” She gave Archie a hug, so very glad he was there to help. “You know that popcorn is my favorite.”
“You might wish to change your mind.” He nodded toward the house. “Long article in the paper this morning.”
“Oh no.”
Archie winked and then shepherded the boys to his car.
“I don’t think they’re ready to go back to school yet.” Mom greeted Lainie at the front door. She handed Lainie the Press-Telegram, the expression on her face disapproving. “Stan made the front page.”
Callen West had written the story about Stan and the warrant service at the car wash. He detailed the murder of Taylor Abbott in Stan’s office and noted that police were trying to locate Stan as a possible witness, not a suspect.
Lainie was certain Shea had told West that so whatever was written did not spook Stan. There was nothing in the piece about Crystal Benton in San Bernardino or about the shooting at the tow yard.
Lainie saw no point in telling her parents about the shooting. It would just give them something else to worry about. The only new information she had to impart was about the jewelry found in Benton’s property.
“Do you have Evie’s jewelry with you?” Mom asked.
“No, it’s in evidence. We won’t get it back until everything is adjudicated.”
Mom rubbed her face with both hands and then sat at the table. “This entire situation is so unbelievable. When I think of how many times I sat next to Stan at church. How did I not see that he was a monster?”
“Evie lived with him and didn’t see it,” Dad said.
“Evie always saw the best in people.” Speaking of her in the past tense made Lainie suck in a breath as if she’d been punched. Was she on the road to acceptance? Before she could answer herself, her phone rang. It was Shea.
Lainie answered.
“We found Stan.”